The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-06-23
ALL ABOUT EARS.
Points About Them Which
Every One Does Not Know.
Changes Wrought By Time in Auricular
Appendage,.

ApPS""'So"
A writer in lIsrpcr's Bazaar says; "A
curious proposition has been made by
the chief of police of one of the large
European cities, that photographs of
criminals should be taken, not with the
full face as now, but with tho side face
in view, using tho car especially, other
features changing with the course OF
timc--a mouth falling, an eye sinking, a
nose projecting, brow growing promi-
ncnt, check either baggy or hollow, a
chin either pointed or doubling, but an
car always remaining unchanged into old
age, and no two ears being alike; so
that thief would be known by his car
as long as there was any thing left OF
him.
"This would seem to involve a siugu-
lar error on tho part of those who follow
such hasty advice. No organs, any close
observer will declare, changes shape
moro than the car does. Even the
piercing of the lobe for earrings will
often pull it down and infl,tc it so as to
work complete Transformation there; and
anybody who has equity acquaintance
may see the change wrought in the ears
by the chalky Jumps and corrections
under the skin that never fail to show
themselves there, that sometimes attain
the size of the curious little notch seen
in the upper edge of many ears, and said
by those who have faiel in the intrca.
cics of evolution to the remnant of the
ancestral car of the apish pcogcntor.
Few features of the human body ere
more distinctly beautiful than the ear,
when it is a beautiful car; that is to say
when it is rosy and little, and so thin
that the blood glows behind it like Il
flame. No sea shell with its myriad del
icatc whorls, with its pink and white,
with polish and brittle dain,incss, is
half so lovely, for no sea shell, after all,
is alive when VIC see it, or when it has
reached that stage Of beauty. But the
car in its perfection has the white throat
beneath it, the clustering hair above it,
the damask check beside it, and it is set
off and heightened in every line and tint
by its surroundings, and as often as not
has the eye of the beholdcr fastened to
it on the point of a quivering jewel gilt
tcriag in it. Yet, let the ear be ever so
smsll and curly--a bit of transparency in
the young gir.-hcrs will be very oX-
ceptional case, if, when she has attained
the age that makes caps advisable, she
is not glad OF the cap to hide large fiat
piece Of cartilage on either side of her
head-not the least disagreeable of the
disagrceablc things that have come to
her as warning and evidences of the end
Of all things. This is not the case with
every person, of course; enough people
to prove the rule retain a
sufficient shape to the
car into old age; but by far the greater
number of ears cease TO be objects on
which the eye of another cares to lingcr,
and become objects which make every
contemporary put up hand to see if his
own cars have turned into flaps of ella
phantine proportions. AS life goes on,
every year uncurls and straightcns out
the pretty whorls of most ears, and flat
tens and seems so to enlarge, the upper
and outer edge, perhaps not through
growth, not even through the daily wip-
ing of the part, as much, as through the
loss of fat in the tissues and the falling
away of ncighboring roundness and
p,umpness; the one rendering the carti-
lagc smooth, the other making it seem
larger than it is by comparison. In
either event. the ear Of tho criminal
to-day will hardly be the same car to
appearances ten years from to-day-wll
bea very different ear in twenty years.
The ears of elderly persons tell the sad
tale to any who care to scrutinizc them
in sufficient numbers to gcneralizc from
what is seen, and any one who chooses
may regretfully watch the process as
time passes, which transforms one of the
choicest features of physical charm into
one of the ugliest.